He showed next to no leadership his senior year. That should have been his year, the year after the NIT championship. Instead the team was flat all year, underachieving. The year after he leaves they win 30 and go to the Elite Eight.
My God do you like to tell a partial story typical UConn fan with expectations exceeding reality
Cliff carried a very young Huskie team averaging 20ppg an 7.5 rpg
It was a young team
He and Phil and junior Tate
Freshman ,Smith average 9 a game
They still won 18 games
Playing a tough OCS schedule
That included Purdue (L)and Virginia (W) UMass (W)
and wins against Pepperdine ,Yale,Harvard, Hartford,Fairfield,and Air Force
Going 6-10 in the brutal Big East the most wins in 5 years
Losing 3 times to NCAA finalist Seton Hall twice to top 10 Georgetown
Beating 4 ranked Cuse ,St John’s,BC,Pitt ,and Villanova
and losing in the third round of the NIT
In 1989-90
The returned everyone except Cliff and Phil
Tate was the senior leader
Smith blossomed as a sophomore
Sellers
Depriest
Gwynn
Williams
Cyrulyk
But the two freshman additions that made that team the best UConn defensive team ever Scott Burrell and Nadev Henefeld
That was not a great team except for defense and a pressing style we’v never seen the likes of again .